After 24 hours to sit with the loss, Shane Steichen didn’t try to dress up what went wrong in Week 1. The Indianapolis Colts coach said just about every area of the team fell short, and his list of problems was long: communication, tackling, explosive plays on defense, special teams penalties, and an offense that couldn’t stay consistent or move the ball well enough in backed-up situations.
“Things we've got to improve on: Communication, tackling, we've got to eliminate the explosive plays (defensively), special teams penalties, we've got to clean those up, and we gotta be better offensively moving the ball, staying consistent there, especially in backed up situations.”
The bluntness was warranted, but it also pointed right back at Steichen. If the Colts were sloppy in all three phases, that reflects on the head coach as much as anyone else. And the biggest red flag from Sunday was how unready Indianapolis looked before the game even settled in.
Steichen talked specifically about the defense’s breakdowns in communication and the trouble getting everyone lined up correctly. That’s the kind of issue teams are supposed to iron out in training camp and the preseason.
When it’s still happening in Week 1, it’s not a small problem. It’s a coaching problem.
Lou Anarumo deserves blame for the defensive side of it, of course, but Steichen is the one in charge of the whole operation. He has to make sure those details are cleaned up before the real games start, and the fact that they weren’t says plenty.
This didn’t look like a team that was merely off for a day. It looked like one that wasn’t prepared.
What made it worse was how much more ready Baltimore appeared to be on both offense and defense. Jesse Minter was coaching his first game ever, and instead of looking overwhelmed, his team looked sharper and more organized. Steichen, by contrast, came off like the rookie.
The Colts didn’t just look lost during the game. They looked lost going into it, too.
That’s a bad sign for any team, but especially for one that spent the offseason talking about urgency. Indianapolis preached that message all summer, yet Steichen and most of the roster played like the pressure of a must-win opener wasn’t really sinking in.
Maybe Week 1 won’t mean much in the long run. The Colts could still turn things around, starting with the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2, and surprise people the rest of the way. But if Steichen is going to keep his job beyond this season, that second version of the story has to happen.
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